Plastic Acid Orchestra performs Saturday, Jan. 30, 8 p.m. at Centennial Theatre, 2300 Lonsdale Ave., North Vancouver. Tickets: $30/$20/$15, at centennialtheatre.com or 604-984-4484.
When Metallica’s “All Nightmare Long” is part of the evening’s musical program, you know you aren’t going to a traditional orchestra performance.
Dressed in their signature red-and-black outfits, the 40-plus classically trained members of Plastic Acid Orchestra will play a modern symphonic arrangement of the 2008 heavy metal hit, along with a number of other eclectic pieces, when they take the stage at North Vancouver’s Centennial Theatre this weekend.
Tearing down genres and finding new fans for orchestral performance is all part of the mission for Bryan Deans, the founder, musical director and conductor of Plastic Acid Orchestra.
“I love classical music, but I’m also a rocker and into new ideas and exploring the boundaries of new music genres,” he says.
Deans, who has been playing the cello since he was “knee-high to a grasshopper,” formed Plastic Acid Orchestra 10 years ago. Initially, the members were all volunteers, but the group has since grown into a professional symphony orchestra playing a mix of original compositions, works from young Canadian composers, and fresh arrangements of contemporary hit songs.
The group has played to cheering crowds at Granville Street nightclubs, been accompanied by burlesque dancers and fire spinners, and was the largest group in history to perform at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival last summer.
Saturday’s concert will feature a number of special guests, including the Lions Gate Sinfonia Youth Orchestra, of which Deans is assistant conductor.
“I’m really passionate about working with youth,” notes Deans, who is also a school music teacher.
Other guests include North Vancouver-raised Jack Garton of the indie roots band Maria in the Shower, and François Houle, one of the city’s preeminent experimental musicians and a Vancouver Community College instructor, who arranged “All Nightmare Long” and will be rocking out in his clarinet during the symphonic rendition.
Meanwhile, Toronto composer Jason Nett has contributed two works to the set, and Giorgio Magnanensi, artistic director of Vancouver New Music, will conduct a piece that goes “beyond normal,” Deans says, and uses shapes and colours instead of sheet music.
“It’s not written in note format. It’s written in kind of gestures and symbols and he has different expressions and guidelines for the orchestra, so it’s a totally unique experience for the players and completely unique to the audience.”
Some Plastic Acid originals will also be on tap, and Star Wars fans will recognize arrangements from the iconic movie series.
Though the group is known to play classical works by Beethoven, Shostakovich, Dvorak and the like, North Vancouver audiences won’t hear any of that on Saturday.
“A lot of the writing is based on classical format, but there’s no direct classical music in this particular set,” Deans says.
He got his start playing the classical greats with his violinist sister and developed a taste for live performance early on. As youngsters, they would head down to Granville Island with their instruments and earn a few dollars busking for tourists.
“The cute factor probably helped,” he admits. “Then we started creating our own music because we got tired of playing the classical duets.”
The siblings went on to perform at weddings and clubs. “By 16, we had a small little LP album and we were invited to play at certain venues and it was pretty cool.”
They both studied music at Douglas College and the University of Victoria. Since graduating, Deans has been assistant conductor of the Vancouver Philharmonic Orchestra, a member of the West Coast Symphony and a conductor and performer with many other local ensembles. Plastic Acid Orchestra is a passion project that allows him to play with genre and shake up the classical music scene.
“Our theme is trying to break borders and do weird, different, cool things,” he says. “It’s all about experimenting with new sounds.”
